Process of making gas from oil.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM A. HALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF MAKING GAS FROM OIL.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. l-lami, citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York,have invented or discovered certain new and useful Imprm'emcnts inProcesses of Making Gas from Oil, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to the production of combustible gases from oilby a method which is much more simple, and which re quires very muchless complicated apparatus than the processes previously used.

It has been proposed by many inventors, to produce gas suitable forburning, by cracking heavy oils, such as petroleum oil in its crudecondition, or still bottoms of petroleum oil, or stripped oil, bypassing these through a heated checker-work maintained at a temperatureapproaching a white heat, but owing to the fact that the hightemperature is essential and owing to mechanical difiiculties, theseprocesses have not, so far as I am aware,come into general use.

In my in'iproved process[ do away with the necessity of the use of achecker-work maintained at a white heat and to the great mechanicaldisadvantages due thereto, and produce the gas from the oil in a singleoperation.

In carrying out my process I preferably proceed in. the followingmanner: A mixture 'of oil and water, which may be in substantially equalproportions, is passed through a heated receptacle containing metallicnickel, which may be in the form of shot, or small irregularly shapedpieces, and which is maintained at a temperature high enough so that thenickel will cause the dissociation of Water into its elements, whichtemperature is also high enough so that nickel oxid cannot exist in thepresence of the reducing agents present. such a temperature being forexample, about 650 to 7 50 C. Under these conditions the hydrocarbons ofthe oil are first cracked into hydrocarbons having a smaller number ofcarbon atoms, and a part of the water present is converted into hydrogen and oxygen, which hydrogen attaches itself to some of theunsaturated hydrocarbon bodies present, and the oxygen attaches itselfto carbon atoms, forming principally CO, although there may be some COalso produced, since it is practically impossible tomaintain thetemperature exactly at the point at which CO will be SpecificationofLetters Patent.

Application filed June 25, 1913.

Patented Aug. 4, 1914. Serial No. 775,741.

formed exclusively instead of some CO In carrying out this process crudepetroleum oil may be employed, although for economical reasons, I preferto use still bottoms or stripped oil, or oil from which at least thegasolene and kerosene fractious have been distilled. Should the oilemployed contain material quantities of sulfur, such as Beaumont oil,Lima oil, or certain. of the Canadian oils, which are high in sulfur,this sulfur would not materially injure the nickel. since thetempe'ature is above that at which the catalytic properties of nickelare destroyed by union with sulfur, but on the contrary this sulfurwould be converted principally into the form of hydrogen sultid.although small amounrs of carbon disullid might me formed. These sulfurcompounds can be removed from the gas by any of the usual mapprovedmethods, if their presence in the gas would be objectionable in theparticular process in which the gas is to be employed. In place of purenickel, I can use nickel contziining small quantities of other metals,such as cobalt or copper which is comn'mnly associated with nickel, andnickel containing small quantities of cobalt appears to facilitate thisreaction, even better than pure nickel.

As stated above, I may use a mixture of oil and water in substantiallyequal proportions, although this is by no means essential. Theproportion of water used will ordinarily depend uponthe consistency oftheoil, and entuigh water is preferably used to produce a liquid whichcan very readily be caused to travel through the pipes into thedecomposing chamber, but in nearly all cases I use very much more waterthan will be actuall decomposed. In using equal parts of oil and water,only a small part say up to about 50% of the water used will bedecomposed, the remainder being volatilized and passing on with the gas,and is removed as a condensate upon cooling the gas. Owing to the factthat heating the mixture of oil and water to the temperature stated ivessome pressure, it is necessary to use a force pump or its equivalent inforcing the oil and water into the decomposing vessel. At this pressureand high temperature there is quite a tendency for the oil in cracking,to form a crust or scale on the walls of the decomposing vessel, and onthe nickel, but the excess of water always resent overcomes this to alarge degree. his is one of the reasons why it is necessary tov'use aconsiderable excess of water.

Inoperating my process upon a particular sampleof stripped oil, whichcontained substantially no sulfur, I produce gases having the followingcomposition (by volume) Methane 48. 60% I Ethylene 40.52 Free hydrogen6.41 Free nitrogen 1.79 Free oxygen 1.06 CO and CO 1.60 H 8 and CS NoneI it will be thus seen that by my process I can produce a .gas mixturewhich contains approximately equal proportions. of methane, andethylene, together with small quantities of free hydrogen, and tracesonly of other gases. This gas has great advantages over coal gas, forthe reason that it is easily prepared, and by the combustion of this gaslarge amountof heat are pro duced (1500 B. T. U.),-and since it containssubstantially no diluents, the flames of this gas can be very accuratelyregulated, to produce the exact conditions needed for any particularprocess in which it is to be employed.

\Vhat I claim is 1. A process of making a combustible gas, whichcomprises bringing a mixture containing substantially equal parts ofWater and oil into contact With a metal having the property of causingthe dissociation of water into its elements, at a temperature of about650 to 750 C.

2. A process of making a combustible gas,

which comprises bringing a mixture containing water and oil into contactwith metallic nickel, at a temperature at which nickel cannot remaincombined with the oxygen of said water.

3. A process of making a combustible gas, which comprises bringing amixture containing water and oil into contact with a metallic nickelcontaining small amounts "of cobalt, at a temperature at which saidtallic nickel at atemperature of about 650 ,to 750 C.

A process of making a combustible gas, which comprises cracking amineral 011, and simultaneously decomposing water into its elements, andcausing the hydrogen from the decomposed water to react with theproducts of said oil cracking step to produce methane and ethylene, andcausing the oxygen from said decomposed water to react with carbon toproduce oxids of carbon, said operation being carried out in thepresence of a catalytic metal.

6. A fuel gas consisting principally of methane and ethylene, insubstantially equal parts, together with small quantities of hydrogen,carbon monoxid and carbon dioxid, said gas producing. approximately1500B. T. U. upon combustion.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature, in presence of twowitnesses.

A. B. FOSTER, A. M. PERKINS.

